PLEASANT HILL -- In a senior center tucked into a rear corner of a strip mall, Boris eagerly bares his belly for a rub while Tina suns herself in the front window.

The pair -- a six-toed sweetheart with the heft of a Maine coon, and a reserved tuxedo cat -- are two of about a dozen feline residents at the Kitty Corner shelter, a partnership between the Contra Costa Humane Society and Contra Costa Animal Services. Kitty Corner is designed for older cats and those with special needs whom visitors to the county shelter often pass over in favor of kittens. It's a last stop for cats who have made the rounds of adoption fairs at pet stores without finding a home.

Some cats who come to Kitty Corner are ill or malnourished and need to be nursed back to health. Others are so wary of people that it takes weeks for them to warm up to the volunteers. And some are just oddballs -- like Tootsie, who was blind in one eye with fangs that protruded over her bottom lip like a furry vampire. Even a few kittens too young to be separated from their moms make their home there, too.

They're all welcome at Kitty Corner, where cats are free to wander, climb the carpeted towers or curl up in a warm lap. Visitors appreciate sitting on the floor and playing with the cats, instead of gazing at them through the doors of an enclosure, said Chrissy Wilberg, adoption program director for Contra Costa Humane Society.

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"We really want to design it to be an intermediary between a cage and a home," she said.

Pet overpopulation is a huge problem in the Bay Area, and in recent years shelters have been overrun with kittens, said Glenn Howell, Contra Costa County's animal services director.

"What we find is that a lot of the kittens we get, they're not wild, they come from free roaming cats ... what we call 'neighborhood cats' that are fed by everyone but don't belong to anyone," he said.

Last year, the county animal shelter took in 8,042 cats, Howell said. The county holds on to cats as long as possible, he added, and about 70 percent are adopted. Cats sent to Kitty Corner have all of their shots, are spayed or neutered and microchipped. Adoption fees are $80 for one cat and $140 for two.

"Quite honestly, without Contra Costa Humane and some of our other adoption partners, we wouldn't be able to place as many cats as we do," Howell said.

As cat lovers know, the range of feline temperaments includes affectionate, standoffish, rambunctious and serene. Wilberg and shelter volunteers spend a lot of time getting to know each cat's personality.

"We try really hard to find not just a home, but the right home," said Leeann Lorono, executive director of Contra Costa Humane Society. Since May 2010, 109 of the 115 cats at Kitty Corner have been adopted; none have been euthanized, she added.

Sometimes, however, the match isn't quite right. Pat Virgallito, of Concord, took home a kitten earlier this year, but it was skittish and they didn't bond. Kitty Corner has a return policy, though, so she reluctantly took it back.

"I guess that's when I decided I was going to get an older cat, because we have grandchildren," she said.

Virgallito spent time petting the cats and worked with Wilberg to find one with a compatible personality. In typical cat fashion, some of them snubbed her. Even though green-eyed Flower was aloof, Virgallito decided to take her home. It was a risk though, since Flower had been returned twice already.

It took a couple months, but Virgallito and the 3-year-old, now called Roxie, are pals.

"She's just a delight. I get up in the morning and she makes me laugh, she talks to me; she's just hilarious."